What's the difference between "College" and "University"?

I think it depends on your country. Here in the UK, for example, a college is usually an alternative to a school for GCSEs or A-levels. It can also be for specific vocational training - e.g. art college.

As far as I can tell - in the US college & university are synonymous. They also often use school to refer to the same place.

In the UK, if someone asked you where you went to school, you would assume they wanted to know what secondary (high) school you went to. It would never occur to you that they meant uni!

In my country there are no colleges, that's why the doubt.

A university is a typically a collection of colleges (or schools).

For example: Harvard University is made up of Harvard College, Harvard Business School, Harvard Divinity School, Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard Law School, Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, etc.

For all intents and purposes - we use the word “college” and “university” interchangeably because they’re the same level of education. Either can do associates through doctoral.

Community colleges, however, only focus on 2 year degrees and certain certifications.

It’s contextual. My understanding is that in British English, “going to uni” is equivalent to the American English “going to college”. At least in the US, the word college colloquially refers to undergrad, though a lot of colleges do offer postgraduate programs.

In New Zealand a university is a form of higher/tertiary education institution.

A college is a high school that's trying to sound fancy.

The kind of place that the US calls "community college" would be called a "polytech" here.

In the US, universities have a significant number of graduate degrees along with undergraduate degrees while colleges offer (almost) exclusively undergraduate degrees. My alma mater became a university shortly before I started because they started offering enough graduate degrees.

From what I understand, colleges focus mainly on undergraduates, while universities provide undergraduate and graduate programs. It doesn't necessarily mean that colleges are always smaller or have less resources than universities though.

In Canada, the difference is generally that universities offer degrees while colleges offer diplomas and certificates. Degrees generally take longer to earn that diplomas or certificates and would include things like bachelors degrees, masters degrees, PhDs, etc.

The answer varies inside and outside the US.

In most countries, Universities offer 4+ year programs and offer accredited degrees. These undergraduate degrees prepare you for even more advanced agrees like Masters or Doctorate ( PhD ). Universities offer medical and law degrees. Universities are the elite schools and are generally only found in larger centres. Colleges on the other hand tend to be vocational and more simply adult study. A college issues a diploma, not a degree and is typically not accredited in the same way. Colleges can be very regional.

You would go to university to get a law degree and collage to get a diploma in criminology. You would go to university to become an engineer and college to become a technician.

In the US, the term college is often used to refer to universities as well and universities sometimes offer a mix of degree and diploma programs. Somebody that went to a state university might refer to it as college. The term Ivy League identifies schools that other countries would identify as universities. In the US, the term community college is more representative of what other countries call colleges. That said, community colleges in the US can be of lower quality than most countries would tolerate ( in my view ).

In Canada, the system is slowly moving towards the US standard. Many colleges or technical institutes are trying to position themselves as universities. There is a rapid increase in the number of colleges, especially those catering to international students.

In the US, they're the same. In most countries, a university is a collection of colleges (although most people don't know that).

In countries where universities and colleges are considered separate entities (i.e. most countries), universities are still considered more prestigious, although it's much easier to get a BS/no job degree from an university than a college

Sort of. There are colleges within university in the US too, we just don't usually talk about it
- Yep. I was apart of my uni's stem college. I want to say there were probably 5 or 6 colleges in my uni
In the US, a University is usually a collection of colleges. Each college has a somewhat independent structure from other colleges within the University, and each is led by its own Dean. Each college has different requirements of entry and provide rules for what it takes to get a degree from that college. But ultimately, you get a degree from something like "The University of Whatever, College of Engineering". All the colleges have some certain amount of oversight and guidelines set up by the overall institution.
In most countries, a university is a collection of colleges (although most people don’t know that).

That is not true at all.
In the US, they're the same.

Are you sure?

I've always thought of universities as educational institutions funded (in part) by the state. So, tuition for "The University of Colorado" is partially subsided by the taxes people pay to the state of Colorado.

Colleges are not funded by the state, therefore have a higher tuition than universities.

At least that's the theory. However, both universities and colleges have become so profit focused, I don't know how much cheaper universities are now-a-days.

I'd also argue that a university in the U.S. is more prestigious than many colleges (the exception being Ivy league schools), because universities being cheaper means a high demand for being accepted, which means applicant need "be better" to gain admittance.

In the job market, however, you are absolutely right: college VS university - it doesn't matter.
- Universities can be public or private. They are simply a collection of colleges. An example of a single college that is not part of a university would be a community college.
  
  As for which is more prestigious, most colleges not part of a university generally only offer Associate's degrees with some offering Bachelor's degrees. Universities offer those along with graduate level degrees. You are correct that universities tend to be tougher to get into.
  
  Past your first job, nobody really gives a shit where you went.
- In the US there’s really no set differentiation. There’s no rules that colleges have to be private or universities have to be public. Harvard is a college (undergrad) and a university, neither are funded by the state.
  
  The general way it works is, universities are large, colleges are small… however, there’s even exceptions to that, if I remember right there’s a university in Alaska that only enrolls like 300 people. A lot of colleges in my state are state funded because they are 2 year community colleges. A lot of our universities have 4 year liberal arts colleges at them.

Not sure where you live, but here in Costa Rica, college is the equivalent to High School.

Source: I am from Costa Rica and I'm on my 10th year (4th year on high school)

chile, HS isn't even that much of a real thing here, here is 8 years of basic education, 4 years of "middle education", (wich more times than not is´t thaaat different to basic education, but kinda is HS) and then University/trade school/army/carab. academy/directly to work

I'm the US there are 3 that I can think of:

They are synonymous in the general sense. "Yeah, I graduated from college."
Specifically a 2-year school, but usually this will be community College or something similar.
Sub organizations in a large university

One is more pretentious than the other and costs more money. 🙃

yeah, but what's the difference???
- That is the difference.
  
  University is where Great Thinkers go to become egg heads and where rich kids go to pretend they're Great Thinkers.
  
  College is where kids go to learn how to weld and program and change bed pans.